WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Human shield fear grows over Pakistan mosque
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-06 09:43
ISLAMABAD - Small groups of
Sports / Soccer
Argentina win again, Brazil under fire
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-06 15:39
PUERTO LA CRUZ, Venezuela, July 5 - Argentina finished the group stages
of the Copa America as the only team with a 100 percent record after
Javier Mascherano's strike gave the tournament favourites a 1-0 win over
Paraguay on Thursday.
But while Argentina eased into the last eight amid plaudits for their
attacking football, arch-rivals Brazil were under fire for coach Dunga's
allegedly unimaginative tactics.
Substitute Mascherano scored Argentina's winner, his first international
goal, with a superbly-placed shot in the 79th minute of the Group C match
in Barquisimeto.
The win guaranteed Argentina first place in the group and avoided a
quarter-final against Mexico. Instead they will face Peru, theoretically
easier opponents, on Sunday.
Paraguay finished second on six points and will be Mexico's opponents,
also on Sunday.
Earlier, Colombia salvaged some pride by beating United States 1-0 to
finish with three points while the U.S. went home pointless after losing
all their games.
Both teams had been eliminated before they kicked off.
Jaime Castrillon headed a 15th minute winner for Colombia, while Hugo
Rodallega missed a penalty and goalkeeper Robinson Zapata was sent off in
the 86th minute after being booked twice for time-wasting.
TOUGH MARKING
Argentina, who made eight chances to their starting line-up, struggled to
break down a tough-marking Paraguay side.
Carlos Tevez and Rodrigo Palacio both hit the woodwork early in the
second before Mascherano ended their frustration shortly after coming on
as a substitute.
"It's not usual for me to score, the important thing is we won and the
team played well," the Liverpool midfielder told reporters.
"We won well, they defended with eight or nine and we tried all sorts of
variations," Argentina coach Alfio Basile added.
"We deserved to win because we were superior."
The other quarter-finals will be on Saturday when Brazil face Chile and
hosts Venezuela meet Uruguay.
Brazil go into their match under intense criticism after scoring only
four goals -- all from striker Robinho including two controversial
penalties -- in Group B, compared to Argentina's nine.
The Rio de Janeiro daily O Globo led the criticism following Wednesday's
1-0 win over Ecuador, describing it as "another dreadful performance".
Other newspapers joined in, pointing out that the team was over-dependent
on Robinho.
The players, however, said results were more important.
"Football is about the result and getting three points. I prefer the
result. The important thing is that we're winning," midfielder Anderson
said.
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radical students trickled out from
Islamabad's besieged Red Mosque on Thursday, despite warning blasts
overnight, raising fears that hardcore militants were keeping some
children as human shields.
Radical Muslim female students surrender themselves to soldiers near Lal
Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad July 4, 2007. [Reuters]
The captured leader of the mosque's Taliban-style student movement, in an
interview broadcast on state television, said 850 students remained
inside, including 600 women and girls, but only 14 men were armed with
Kalashnikovs.
Abdul Aziz, clad in a woman's all-enveloping garment like the one he was
caught wearing the previous evening, began the interview by dramatically
lifting the black veil to reveal a face dominated by a bushy grey beard.
Smiling through much of the interview Aziz said he had wanted to leave
the mosque, and had urged others to do the same, but some women teachers
had persuaded girls to stay behind.
"They are not being used as human shields, we only gave them passion for
jihad (holy war)," Aziz said.
But he said it was time for all the students to leave.
"For students to stay put at the mosque will only be damaging ... they
should either leave, if they can, or surrender."
One 12-year-old girl, Maria Habib, who was escorted from the mosque by
her uncle on Thursday, said there were between 35 and 40 students of her
age still inside.
A burqa-clad young woman who left on Thursday told Reuters Television she
had seen four bodies in the mosque including those of two girls.
Before dawn, security forces fired a series of "warning blasts,"
ratcheting up pressure on the hold-outs to surrender.
The blasts were followed by a loudspeaker announcement calling on
students inside Lal Masjid to give up, a witness said.
Some gunfire also erupted but both the blasts and gunfire stopped after
about 20 minutes.
Deadline passes
By the time a new deadline for surrender passed shortly after noon, only
around 66 students, half of them girls, had left the sprawling, fortified
compound housing the mosque and a madrasa, compared with Wednesday's mass
exodus of 1,200 students.
A helicopter gunship overflew the compound, firing in what appeared to be
the same sort of intimidation tactic used after earlier deadlines had
elapsed.
"All those who are remaining in the mosque are ready to die," said
Mehbood Wali, 25, one of the male students to leave the mosque on
Thursday.
Hospital doctors said there had been casualties during shooting
overnight, raising prospects that the death toll would rise from an
official tally of 16 since clashes began on Tuesday.
An intelligence official said one student had been shot dead.
"One student is confirmed killed during the shooting early this morning.
There are no reports of wounded," he said.
The Lal Masjid movement is part of a phenomenon known as "Talibanization"
- the spread of militant influence from remote tribal regions on the
Afghan border into central areas.
Liberal politicians have for months pressed President Pervez Musharraf,
who faces elections later this year, to crack down on the cleric brothers
in charge of the mosque and their movement.
The students carried out a series of provocative acts over the past six
months, demanding the enforcement of strict Islamic law, while running a
vigilante anti-vice campaign.
Abdul Aziz had threatened suicide attacks if force was used against his
movement.
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